AIADMK to convene on September 12 for big decision on Sasikala

The general council-cum-executive committee of the ru­ling AIADMK will convene in Che­n­nai for that all important meeting where they would decide the fate of interim general secretary VK Sasikala.

(From left) Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and CM Edappadi K Palaniswami at the general council meeting of AIADMK in Chennai on Monday. (EPS | D Sampathkumar)

CHENNAI: In two weeks, the general council-cum-executive committee of the ru­ling AIADMK will convene in Che­n­nai for that all important meeting where they would decide the fate of interim general secretary VK Sasikala — and thus that of ousted de­p­u­ty general secretary TTV Dh­­i­n­a­k­­aran — resolved the ruling faction at a meeting here on Monday.

Facing insurgency from within and rising demands to prove majority, leaders of the unified AIADMK are hoping that the Election Commission of India would give its ruli­ng on the validity of Sasikala’s app­o­intment as the general secretary of the party before the council me­e­ts on Septe­m­ber 12.

Meanwhile, a five member team comprising senior ministers P Thangamani, D Jayakumar and CV­e Shanmugam, V Maitreyan MP and Manoj Pandian left for Delhi to formally inform the commission about the merger of Amma and Puratchi Thalaivi Amma factions. They are likely to file an affidavit to this effect and seek defreezing of the Two Leaves symbol.

The meeting attended by headquarters office-bearers, ministers, spokespersons, district secretaries, MPs and MLAs, chaired by presidium chairman E Madhusudanan, declared all reshuffles effected by ousted deputy general secretary Dhinakaran invalid. The commission is yet to approve Sasikala’s appointment as the interim general secretary and hence the deputy ge­neral secretary she appointed has no po­wers to either appoint or remove any office-bearer in the party, stated one of the resolutions.

It reiterated that all office-bearers originally appointed by the late ge­n­eral secretary J Jayalalithaa and those elected through organisational polls would continue in their respective posts. Another key resolution termed Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR daily as party assets, vowing to take all legal steps to capture th­ese two mo­uthpieces that were est­a­blished with Jaya’s efforts and the contribution of lakhs of cadre. The ch­annel and newspaper are owned and controlled by Sasikala’s family, and the factionalism has had an effect on its attitude towards the other factions and the gove­­rn­­ment.

35 MLAs give it a miss

In what could be a setback to EPS, at least 35 of the 113 MLAs belonging to his faction did not attend the meeting. “It was not a legislative party meeting. All ministers, district secretaries and MLAs who hold other positions attended the meeting,” a minister said.